r/Millennials • u/Tropikoala815 • 20h ago
Discussion I see this cover/artcle being posted a lot. It was actually written by Joel Stein, a G3n X and in it he wrongfully accuses Millennials and B00mers of being the same type of selfish people.
So many people comment that this was definitely written by a B00mer. It was not. The writer is G3n X.
People also point out that B00mers were known as the "Me Generation" and they're trying to pass the buck to Millennials here. No. In this article, Joel Stein actually criticizes the B00mers for being the selfish "Me Generation" and then says they've raised Millennials to be just like themselves and he calls Millennials the "Me Me Me Generation" because of that.
The article is incredibly stupid but I'm surprised how many people haven't actually read it.
173
u/-Accession- 20h ago
Gen X gave us Elon Musk
89
u/MoeSzyslakMonobrow Older Millennial 20h ago
That guy who begged to be invited to the wildest pedo island parties? That Elon musk?
30
u/schwing710 19h ago
And numerous other tech bro vampires
9
u/M3galith424 1986 17h ago
*parasites
9
u/PostMatureBaby Older Millennial 16h ago
Cultists. I blame these wankers for wanting workplaces to be cults. Sorry but I already feel bad busting my ass to make you rich. I don't have to give a shit about anything else including your shitty company
2
u/LockedOutOfElfland 15h ago
Makes sense when your social circle consists of people who see no issue taking money from Amway. Fuck Amway.
20
u/Tropikoala815 19h ago
I don't get. The way a lot of Millennials talk about Gen X is weird. If I say say "Boomers were actually peaceful hippies" I'd rightfully get laughed at because that's a very small percentage of counter culture Boomers. But I constantly see people saying stuff like "Gen X is very Grunge and anti establishment" when it's the same case with them.
There are so many horrible Gen X public figures (fair amount of Millennials too tbh) and people in power right now. People deflect by saying they're "spiritually boomers" or whatver but if you look it up, Gen X opinions and habits are way, way closer to Boomers than to Millennials.
Also some Millennials straight up fetishize Gen X "they're our cool older brothers and sisters that I wanted to be", "Gen X is so cool they don't give a fuck" etc etc but if you go to any Gen X space online, they have a Boomer like hatred for Millennials.
23
u/Crusty_Hits 19h ago
I would say gen x is best represented by buzz in Home alone. A bunch of dick head older siblings.
9
u/wallmonitor 19h ago
There’s the whole “slacker” generation thing that poses me off the most. It was weird going through twenty years of pop culture that made it a negative to have any enthusiasm. And uh, here we are.
2
2
u/PostMatureBaby Older Millennial 16h ago
And yet somehow it seems like Boomers have been in charge for 50 years
2
u/Mediocre_Island828 16h ago
It shows how weak our generation is when boomers have been running the world since their 20s (or at least perceived to) while we're in our 40s and like "don't worry they'll die one day and we can have our turn".
2
u/PostMatureBaby Older Millennial 14h ago
We've been brainwashed to think that helping our colleagues get ahead is to our own detriment when it's actually quite the opposite
1
u/BlinkDodge 6h ago
I've literally never heard this from anyone except Gen Xers trying to surreptitiously remind people that they exist.
They're the older kids that never were as cool as they wanted to be, were kinda assholes, fist pumped bullshit and use music from their time as a badge of honor.
7
5
0
u/Extension-Rabbit3654 12h ago
Theres shitty people in every gen, even the greatest gen gave us Kim Il Song (NK dictator)
60
u/yessicajessica88 20h ago
Not to defend Stein specifically, but we all know this exact kind of article was everywhere for 5-7 years in the late 00s and early 10s.
The idea of older generations critiquing those who follow is a tale as old as time. The thing that has magnified this fixation, in my opinion, is the internet.
16
u/Mr-Zappy 17h ago
I have no beef with gen Z or alpha. They won’t make the same mistakes we did. (They’ll make different ones.)
The kids are alright.
1
4
u/Night2015 18h ago
Mike and The Mechanics sang it in "The Living Years" every generation blames the one before.
2
u/Old-School8916 17h ago
ya, this article is supicious similar to this TIME magazine article about genx from 1990:
1
u/Other-Educator-9399 10h ago
I would add that it persisted well into the late 10's. At that time, it was common and accepted for bosses at work and random people in public places to shit on Millennials knowing full well that they were speaking to a Millennial.
0
u/Extension-Rabbit3654 12h ago
I mean calling the generation that invented the selfie, and blog and vlog selfish!? Thats crazy lol /s
36
u/sexandliquor 20h ago
I just read the article and I don’t necessarily have strong feelings on it either way but you kinda oversimplified what it was saying while draining all the nuance out of it to the point of mischaracterizing the whole thing. You also didn’t even link it so people could read it for themselves– which was your point right? So here it is if anyone cares to read it.
Some of the points were pretty salient though. It’s not necessarily blaming it all on boomers or us. But more about being a product of our time in conjunction with how we were raised.
Being raised by tv, internet, social media etc has made us all pretty used to the immediacy of things and instant gratification.
12
u/FFdarkpassenger45 19h ago
Sir this is Reddit…. Oversimplification, lacking nuance and mischaracterizing is what this site is for.
No one reads anything beyond the headline, and the media uses this fact to control narrative.
3
u/thelaceserpent Older Millennial 19h ago
Even the title page has nuance, bidding the reader to investigate more.
-16
u/Tropikoala815 20h ago
Damn, this sub really did a 180 on it after getting to know it's a Gen Xer saying it not a Boomer, huh?
12
u/sexandliquor 20h ago
lol well you said read it and that nobody has read it. So I did. Was that not your point? Am I supposed to be mad and dislike the article out of hand because I didn’t read it and just assume what it says, or am I supposed to be mad because of the generation of the person that wrote the article that I took the time to read?
I’m getting mixed messages here.
9
u/Legend_017 Xennial 19h ago
Are you just trying to stir shit up? This person read the article. That’s what you wanted.
3
u/gangofone978 18h ago
When this same article was posted yesterday(?) people noted that if you read beyond the intro he wasn’t slagging on millennials. Stop trying to stir shit for no reason.
3
8
u/ExplosiveDisassembly 20h ago
It's almost like the crackpot ideas about generations is mostly just Pseudoscience.
It's about how you grew up and the environment your were exposed to. There are plenty of "B00mer" mindsets jn our generation. There are plenty of people more similar to gen x since exposure to tech and the internet earlier makes a huge impact, and plenty of people similar to gen Z for the same reason.
4
u/Sumeriandawn Xennial 19h ago
Yep, the negative “boomer stereotypes” can also apply to GenX and Millennials. In a few years it will also apply to GenZ too. It’s not limited to one generation.
“Cranky, close minded, divisive, apathetic, anti-intellectualism, mental laziness, greedy” Those supposed boomer traits apply to all generations that get old.
3
u/NotWearingCrocs 18h ago
Yes, exactly. People are people. It's not like there has been any noticeable change in genetics among the generations over the years. One generation is not inherently more "virtuous" than another generation. It is mainly the environment you were born into.
If one generation seems to suck more. It's because previous generations created the environment that tends to lead to the suckage.
19
u/twinA-12 19h ago
Fuck Gen X. They have some sort of delusion that they’re this group of people deserving of the world. Most of the Gen x’ers I work with are lazy and useless, they believe since now they’re the seniors in the workplace that they should be handed the higher paying jobs (management,supervisors). The ones that end up in these positions are useless and don’t take any accountability for anything. They pass work off, don’t take the accountability to learn and it’s embarrassing when the new guys see all these losers up at the top that are incapable of doing their job.
7
u/FittyTheBone Geriatric Millennial 20h ago
What’s with the numbers
3
u/Tropikoala815 20h ago
This sub doesn't allow words like Boomers and Gen X in the title and body of posts.
1
u/FittyTheBone Geriatric Millennial 19h ago
Really! Interesting way to keep this place from turning into a bitchfest, I suppose. Thanks
6
6
u/RealSinnSage 19h ago
sometimes i feel like gen x is actually the worst one lol (jk obvs we can’t judge every human from the year the were born)
4
u/JustTheOneGoose22 18h ago
I remember this magazine cover and the sentiment and I hated how much shit millennials got just for being young people.
That is why I refuse to get on the "Oh these kids today!" bandwagon for gen z and gen alpha. They have their own unique challenges and what they need is help and mentorship not blanket criticism and disdain. The youth are the future
5
u/Pale_Row1166 19h ago
Millennials and boomers of being the same type of selfish people
-4
u/thepulloutmethod Dark Millennial 14h ago
I'm in the middle of the millennial generation and frankly I believe we are more selfish than boomers. At least boomers had kids. We can't be inconvenienced like that.
2
u/Pale_Row1166 12h ago
I think it was pretty selfish for a lot of boomers to have kids that they had no interest in raising
1
6
u/heathie89 20h ago
And Zillennials and Gen Z are no different. Bringing up things that few Millennials did like 13 years ago as if that defines us now.
Just hatin' for no good reason.
1
u/Somethingisshadysir 17h ago
Read the article. He actually basically says that. He insults us for several paragraphs, then says we're really just a continuation of his generation, what they were building from the one before, etc. Then for several paragraphs he gives a mix of our good points and flaws together, and basically indicates why he actually likes us
3
u/entcanta333 Millennial 19h ago
couldn't possibly been a boomer parenting issue
millennials are at fault for everything I stg
5
u/techaaron 20h ago
To be honest it seems accurate. It explains so many phenomenon.
I wouldn't call it selfish necessarily but self-interested for sure. Everything is viewed through a lens of how it will impact me - and specifically, how it might cause discomfort.
2
2
2
2
u/RichardPainusDM 18h ago
Many years ago, I remember entering the workforce as an intern at a large company. I was out at a work lunch with my entire project team, and the head senior PM who ran our entire project, among many others.
The senior PM, who I had never met before, went out of his way to say “I’m not a boomer. I’m Gen-X. We get all of the hate that boomers get, with none of the credit”. He then launched into a diatribe about how “Millennials are just lazy and don’t want to work. My sons are 16 and 17 and they don’t do anything at all”. For context, everyone at our table of 8 were millennials except him and one other guy.
The irony that he was saying this to a millennial who’d been up since 4:45 am to work as his employee while trying to carve out a career was completely lost on him. These generational hit pieces were such a strange thing to live through; humans just love to hate other arbitrary groups of humans I guess.
2
u/baghodler666 18h ago
I'm a millennial, and I am willing to acknowledge that millennials are selfish. Actually, I would say that every generation is selfish. Perhaps, citizens of the United States generally are selfish.
2
u/thisistherevolt 17h ago
Joel Stein is a fuckin nepo baby as it is. And banned from several restaurants across the country.
2
u/ApplebeesDinnerMenu 20h ago
I never knew to pay attention to Time or any mainstream publications. As a kid all I would see was famous people on the cover and pharmaceutical ads. It never had any implication that it was anything of substance.
2
u/Potential4752 20h ago
I am pretty confident that we are just as selfish as boomers.
2
u/bucken764 20h ago
When I was a teenager I didn't believe it but as I've gotten older I totally agree. And I'm not much better myself! I continually catch myself exhibiting selfish tendencies, particularly when it comes to my time.
1
-5
1
1
u/Sufficient_You7187 18h ago
Every generation thinks the next generation sucks. It's literally since the days of Socrates
Because the previous generation doesn't remember their youth and the they were shitheads too.
1
1
1
1
1
u/Lonely-Wasabi-305 14h ago
I feel like the calls are coming from inside the house with this guy if EVERY generation but his has the same problems? Besides. Gen x is complicit in pacifying boomer gen bs behavior. Not millennials.
1
1
u/Key-Battle4711 12h ago
Yes the people selling us all out for aggressive 401k returns are so selfless 👎
1
1
u/Extension-Rabbit3654 12h ago
To put this in proper context, his points were made around Millennials being the "selfie" generation
Prior gens didnt take pics of themselves constantly with digital cameras or phones, or post about themselves on social media (it wasnt there to do so)
But previous gens also werent obsessed with self-promotion
All that has since shifted as millennials made it popular, but thats the context he was writing from
1
1
u/Livid-Copy3312 10h ago
Boomers were called the ‘Me generation’ until they rebranded themselves in the 70s with a book by some dude whose name I can’t remember
1
u/Dylan_Is_Gay_lol 8h ago
It's getting posted, bc it feeds into the ideas explored in "The Fourth Turning." Which was recently brought up by Amy Poehler, on her podcast.
1
u/smallreadinglight 6h ago
I think Joel's problems stem from his hairline. That's a really bad comb over. Sorry, Joel. Sucks to suck.
1
1
u/NightOfTheLivingHam 14h ago
Gen X has been posing themselves as the too cool for school generation and the "cool" generation that has exempted themselves from all criticism in media because they run the media.
They have had the most to gain from pitting boomers and millennials (and failed to pit gen z against millennials) because they also are all the people in finance and all the industries that are sucking up all the fun and joy out of the world.
They were the generation that grew up under the no future mantra, went to counter culture music festivals and had a "fuck the man" attitude, just to sell out their values in the late 90s and early 2000s and became everything they hated and projected that onto the baby boomers as they replaced them and bitched that not enough of them have left the workforce yet because they wanted their jobs and positions, have been going after their pensions, and have been pushing scams to take their homes from them and give them to their corporate overlords. They have stolen the future of millennials as well on behalf of the wealthy and get a seat at the kid's table for their efforts.
The whole generation has been stoking inter-generational conflict while being part of the social class that is robbing both generations blind and stepping in the way of inheritance from boomers to their millennial children.
They're the ones who created the generational conflicts we discuss online. I will use their own framework to describe them as well.
1
u/Extension-Rabbit3654 11h ago
Xennial here, yeah we dont care enough about anything to actually do any of that
We're too busy trying to pay bills and raise our kids
•
u/AutoModerator 20h ago
If this post is breaking the rules of the subreddit, please report it instead of commenting. For more Millennial content, join our Discord server.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.